Starting off almost poetically, Once a Wasteland: From Toxic Dump to National Park moves into the facts quickly. Everything is laid out in simple, but not simplistic terms. The overall tone is good, it allows you to access a piece of history and the extras allow the book to grow with the reader. However, “points” are lost due to the fact environmental stories are not new, it was not necessarily told in a new manner and I had questions that were not answered, such as it is great that we can store the waste, but not now what? What happens to the buildings where it is stored? What happens if there are accidents, natural disasters, human intervention? The illustrations are a nice addition, with their good colors and medium details that help keep things lighter but still able to show the seriousness of things.
Diane Muldrow and Amy Jindra Hodgson (illustrator) put a lot of work into this picture book (which I read via an online reader and due mid February 2026) and I can appreciate that. I would like to know more about them, ask questions about their interests in environmentalism, and why this particular subject. One part I enjoy is that though there is history behind the subject (the toxic dump site was started after the second world war) it would go into modern day. The fact that we might have started this clean up and our environmental pushes in the 1960s and 1970s much of this clean up will have been done in most listeners and readers’ lifetimes. Some things happened as recently as 25 years ago and even more recently.
While I personally might not be thinking this is the best book ever, it is a book we should be aware of and looking forward to reading next Spring. Put it on your TBR list now.